Winter is the season for pondering, what could be, what can be? What happened, and where did I go wrong? (It’s a long story) My one acre garden has been expanding for more than twenty years, and is overflowing with common dogwoods and viburnums, redbuds, nandinas and hollies, lots of this, a few of that, and a…

I’m generally not one to reminisce about the goings-on of the year past. Gardeners are well served possessing a short memory, better to forget the minor disasters that occur with regularity, but we mustn’t forget the why’s and why-not’s, the how-to’s that prevent complete failure. My wife will confirm that my memory is selective, the unpleasant or…

The garden is covered by a blanket of snow, but today the sun is shining and birds are darting to and fro. Our bird feeder has long been abandoned, a victim of relentless tree rats. No doubt there are feeders resistant to tree rats (okay, squirrels), but I’ve become satisfied to provide natural feed and…

The drive has been shoveled, several times. Nearly two feet of snow have fallen today, and spring seems far away. Days such as this bring back wonderful memories, of the storm of ’66 when as a kid I delivered the morning newspaper, wading through chest high drifts. Later in the day jumping from the second…

The southeast is not always sunny and warm I’ve just returned from a week touring nurseries in the “sunny” southeast. After four days of rain the sun made a brief appearance,  a respite from the monsoon. I flew out Friday evening in a sweatshirt with temperatures in the mid-thirties. Back home in Virginia, I awakened Saturday morning to large,…

Mahonia ‘Winter Sun’ I get excited about new plants. A lot! I’m intrigued by the latest and largest, the newest color of this or that, and any new cross or hybrid of one of my old favorites. My wife will tell you that I buy one of each, but that’s not strictly true, sometimes it’s…

Instead of leaves I see houses in the distance, the last of the blazing orange Japanese maples were stripped in the wind and rain earlier in the week. Wet leaves are ankle-deep in the garden, and I bemoan the drab winter ahead with the red berries of hollies (below) and nandinas the only bright colors….

Don’t bother me, I’m busy! There’s no time to visit, no guests permitted. Not until the leaves are raked, chopped, hauled, and piled in the compost heap. The dahlias, cannas, and elephant ears have been dug, cleaned, dried, and now must be bagged with dry leaves and set on shelves in the garage nearest the…

A blast of sub-freezing temperatures late last week ruined the flowers of toad lilies, Encore Fall blooming azaleas, and roses. The azaleas and roses have numerous unopened buds that were tightly wrapped, and thus insulated from the freeze. If the weather stays mild, if nighttime lows don’t drop too far into the low-thirties, then we’ll…